Eco Hvar

ANIMAL WELFARE: What We Do

Published in For the Common Good

We do our best to help animals in need. This is an overview of what we do, despite our limited resources. We aim to do more!

Two rescued puppies (2018) Two rescued puppies (2018)

Every year, Eco Hvar receives inquiries, complaints and pleas for help about lost, abandoned and ill-treated animals. Some of the inquiries come from islanders, the majority from Croatian and foreign guests. Most relate to dogs and cats on Hvar, but they have also included donkeys, horses and birds. A few inquiries come in from other islands and even distant parts of mainland Croatia.

Top ten topics:

1. Stray dogs wandering loose, looking hungry and lost

2. Lost dogs, reported by owners or finders

3. Dogs living in squalor without proper shelter from the sun, and without regular food and water

4. Dogs kept on a chain, barking and/or howling non-stop day and night

5. Dogs creating a nuisance, not kept under proper control

6. Cats abandoned in tourist resorts which close at the end of the summer season

7. Cats multiplying out of control

8. Tiny kittens abandoned and hungry

9. Sick cats and dogs

10. Cats making a mess in private or public places

What we do depends on the circumstances of each case:

1. We check the details of the situation, as far as we can, by visiting the place, and/or by making inquiries with local people

2. We contact the relevant authorities: the local Warden, local Vet, Veterinary Inspectors and/or Police

3. We take lost dogs to the Vet to check whether they are micro-chipped

4. We try to locate the owners of loose, roaming dogs

5. We try to find ways of influencing owners who keep their dogs in bad conditions

6. When possible, we take in abandoned dogs  and try to find them homes

7. If necessary, we take unwanted dogs to the No-kill Animal Shelter (Animalis Centrum) in Kaštela near Split, which has an excellent success rate in finding them homes, and keeps us informed about the status of dogs from the island

8. As much as we can, we support other Charities and individuals working for animal welfare

9. We encourage cat and dog owners to have their pets sterilized

10. We encourage dog and cat owners to clean up after their animals (and other people's if necessary)

11. We try to help street cats, by working on local solutions for those in need of food and care

12.We encourage and support individuals who want to help animals in need as much as we can

13. We take sick dogs or cats to the Vet, if possible

14. We inform the people who have contacted us about animals in need so that they understand the relevant laws which govern the situation; we explain what action we have taken (or why we have been unable to do anything), and what the outcome has been (if any)

Rescued puppy examined by Vet Dr. Mirej, February 2018. Photo: Vivian Grisogono

VETERINARY SURGERIES ON hVAR

Hvar Town; Specijalistička praksa za male životinje. Address: Šime Buzolić Tome 15a, Hvar, Croatia; Tel 021 880 022. On Facebook; email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Stari Grad:  Veterinarska ambulanta Lota Stari Grad. Address: Put Rudine 3, Stari Grad, Croatia. Tel: 021 244 337.  On Facebook. email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

 HELP IS ALWAYS NEEDED!

As there is no Animal Shelter for unwanted dogs or cats on the island, we are very limited in what we can do. However, the revised Law on Animal Protection (Zakon o zaštiti životinja NN 102 /2017) which came into force in October 2017 has made a difference: local authorities are now obliged to take greater action for animal welfare. This has helped the work of Charities like ours. In particular, we have benefited from the excellent services provided by the Bestie Foundation which is responsible for the Animalis Centrum Animal Shelter in Kaštel Sućurac. Much remains to be done, so please support us, in whatever way you can! In 2024 a special appeal is being launched in aid of the Bestie Foundation:

Twelve good reasons to help the Bestie Animal Protection Foundation

PLEASE DONATE!

Details for donations:

Via the bank:
Zaklada Bestie
Kukuljevićeva 1, 21000 Split
Otp banka
IBAN: HR9324070001100371229
SWIFT: OTPVHR2X

Paypal donate button: https://www.paypal.me/ZakladaBestie

© Vivian Grisogono MA(Oxon) 2018, 2024.

Related items

More in this category: « Dogs: how to help when needed
back to top
You are here: Home For the common good ANIMAL WELFARE: What We Do

Eco Environment News feeds

  • MSPs not told about collapse of funding deal for Scottish nature restoration

    Exclusive: Ministers accused of trying to keep investment firm’s withdrawal from partnership with NatureScot under wraps

    A funding deal to raise £100m from private investors for urgently needed nature restoration in Scotland has fallen through without the Scottish parliament being told.

    The Guardian has learned that Aberdeen, the investment firm, decided to withdraw from a partnership with the agency NatureScot to raise at least £100m for conservation projects from commercial and private investors late last year.

    Continue reading...

  • Surrounded by windfarms but out of work: the reality of the green jobs boom on England’s east coast

    The government hails the ‘green revolution’ as a solution to economic decline, but some young jobseekers say the rhetoric does not match their experience

    On paper, Jake Snell, 19, sounds like the perfect candidate for a role in the UK’s burgeoning green energy sector. He has high grades in maths and physics A-level, a distinction in BTec engineering and another distinction in an extended engineering diploma. He has also done work experience at an engineering company.

    He is from Lowestoft, a coastal town in Suffolk, outside Great Yarmouth. Both towns contain areas that fall within the most deprived 20% in England and are part of a wider pattern of coastal places with low employment opportunities.

    Continue reading...

  • Welcome to The Hotspot, our new newsletter on sport’s relationship with the climate crisis

    We delve into the best stories on how sport is changing around the climate crisis, and what can be done to navigate a way forward

    Nelson Mandela said: “Sport can create hope where once there was only despair.” Too optimistic? In 2026, almost certainly. Sport is still a common language, uniting unlikely groups like an all-powerful Esperanto, but it is in trouble.

    The pitches we play on, rivers we swim, seas we surf, mountains we climb, parks we run in, air we breathe – all are being degraded by the burning of fossil fuels as the climate crisis turns the sporting landscape upside down.

    Continue reading...

  • ‘Without them there is no life’: the race to understand the mysterious world of Africa’s fungi

    Amid growing evidence of fungi’s key role in ecosystems and storing carbon, African scientists are championing the need to preserve ‘funga’ as much as flora and fauna

    Madagascar has long been celebrated for its remarkable wildlife, with the vast majority of its species – from ring-tailed lemurs to certain species of baobab trees – found nowhere else on the planet. But when discussing the island nation’s endemic treasures, fungi are often left out of the conversation.

    Yet “fungi are some of the most important things in the world”, says Anna Ralaiveloarisoa, a Malagasy scientist. “They feed 90% of terrestrial plants. Without them, there is no life on the Earth.”

    Continue reading...

  • ‘Nothing but tree skeletons’: record-breaking wildfires devastate US cattle country

    Rising temperatures and extreme drought are driving more destructive spring fires across the Great Plains. This year, forces aligned to create the perfect storm in Nebraska

    In a normal year, the vast grasslands that roll across the American Great Plains would be starting to green. But at the center of the US, where most of the nation’s beef producers graze their herds, this spring brought fire instead of moisture, leaving more than a million acres black and barren.

    Multiple blazes raged across Nebraska, where the records for the annual acreage burned were obliterated in a single month. The state logged the largest blaze ever recorded when the Morrill fire cascaded across more than 642,000 acres (260,000 hectares) before it was contained in March.

    Continue reading...

  • Giant echidnas weighing 15kg roamed Victoria – and the evidence was hiding in plain sight

    A skull fragment found in a tray of unsorted fossils collected more than a century ago leads to discovery

    A prehistoric fossil, hiding in plain sight in museum storage for more than a century, has revealed that giant echidnas once roamed Victoria.

    The Owen’s giant echidna, Megalibgwilia owenii, lived during the Pleistocene, a geological epoch that began 2.5m years ago. It grew to about 1 metre long and weighed up to 15kg – about twice the size of Australia’s modern echidnas.

    Continue reading...

  • Colombia to cull up to 80 hippos descended from Pablo Escobar zoo

    Dozens of feral pachyderms linked to drug kingpin to be killed because of threat to native species and villagers

    Colombian officials have authorized a plan to cull dozens of hippos descended from animals brought to the country in the 1980s by Pablo Escobar, after the feral beasts displaced native species and threatened local villagers.

    The environment minister, Irene Vélez, said the decision was reached because other methods to control their population had been expensive and unsuccessful, including neutering some of the animals or moving them to zoos. Vélez said that up to 80 hippos would be affected by the measure. She did not say when the hunting would begin.

    Continue reading...

  • Inside a jubilant DC conference where ‘the climate deniers are in charge now’

    Trump’s EPA chief Lee Zeldin’s presence shows how much influence climate deniers now have, experts say

    As scientists confirmed that March was the United States’ most abnormally hot month in recorded history, dozens of climate deniers gathered to promote misinformation and tout their newfound influence on federal policy.

    At a conference hosted by the prominent science-denying thinktank the Heartland Institute last week, a crowd of mostly middle-aged men in suits claimed the world is finally waking up to the idea that the climate crisis does not exist.

    Continue reading...

  • America’s hiking culture is built on ego

    From peak-bagging to thru-hiking, Americans have turned traversing land into personal milestones. This wilderness ranger and Indigenous writer has witnessed it firsthand

    Këmituxwe Éhènta Wehikiyànkw

    You are walking in our old homeland

    After spending 12 years backpacking some of America’s wildest trails as a wilderness ranger for the US Forest Service – and then losing that job to politics – last spring I set out for the Appalachian Trail (AT), the longest hiking-only footpath in the world.

    Continue reading...

  • ‘We are totally out of our depth’: experts say whale stranded in Baltic is beyond saving

    Male humpback, which has repeatedly stranded and freed itself in Germany in past month, is to be left in peace to die

    When a 10-metre long humpback whale became stranded on a sandbar in the Baltic Sea last month, none of those who went to its rescue could have known how it might turn lives and livelihoods upside down.

    About a month after the first sighting of the male whale, near Wismar and Timmendorfer Strand on the north German coast, it has repeatedly stranded and freed itselfand is now stranded once more, with rescuers saying it is in the throes of death.

    Continue reading...

Eco Health News feeds

Eco Nature News feeds

Copyright © 2026 Eco Hvar. All Rights Reserved. Developed by Orion Informatika.